live in Pittsburgh (2005)

Microwaves kicked off a delayed show with a fairly bizzarre avant noise punk metal sound I was mostly mildly indifferent to, as it sort of reminded me of Isis toying around with prehistoric car alarms, but occasionally the band had some stellar vocal interplay, initially reminiscent of early At The Drive-In. Though, the fact that there were only 2 members (from my view, anyway) was impressive for all the sound manipulation that was going on.

I missed Point Line Planes. You fill it in.

Doomriders was the second-to-last act to play, and brought a wall-of-sound hardcore with them. Seemingly, the set was bookended at both spots with rock'n'roll-edged hardcore, sort of in the vein of Bars but with a much tougher vocalist and a more brutal feel, but it was a sort of a lose-lose situation for me. They seemed a bit repetitive in those R'n'R spots and lost my interest when they lost the "roll" portion in the middle of the set. My foot was tapping for a good portion of the set, though, and they had one kid in the middle of the "crowd" (two or three dozen people) shaking everything he had.

About 11:15 or so, the men of Daughters set up and readied themselves. The lead singer muttered an introduction and mentioned his present illness, so expecting the full set of usual antics usually heard about was low, but he still did some fairly weird shit, from scaling the speaker a few times and trying to force regurgitation the first to, at another point, rhythmically moaning orgasmically, resulting in a mild climax in which he hushed "the fuck whisperer," and far previous to that, dry-humping the corner of the amp. They opened with "Feisty Snakewomen," a new song that was way more fleshed out than anything from Canada Songs, and included lots of muttered / spoken word / sung vocals, only letting the wailing screams out at the end. It was still Daughters, especially in the guitars, but definitely an attempt at more "song-y" songs, even as they mostly kept their core grind structure. They played a good portion of the full-length as well, and the (very) subtle diversity of it was a good reminder in the tracks played. The vocalist's range is displayed much wider live as well, from wailing to the same high pitches of the guitars to standard screams. Everyone in the band rocked out sufficiently (moreso than anyone in the crowd, essentially), with the bassist staring into the crowd with a maniacal, hypnotized look as he played some speed-induced scales at one point and the right stage guitarist consistently thrashing around. It was a pretty enjoyable set that covered most of their discography (that is, most of the full-length, the entire self-titled 7" and the demo on the site).